The Odious Kidnapping of a Half-Owl
by Aslan's Lamb
Summary: Luna's 3rd year at school has its share of struggles and bullies, as well as new classes and an unusual friend. The bullying seems all in fun but then, her beloved pet Dibs gets stolen. Luna is certain that one of the bullies has Dibs but how can she get him back? Can a painting help her come up with a daring plan? Set against the backdrop of the Triwizard Tournament, the book GOF.
1. Chapter 1

It was mid-November and raindrops were pummeling the windows of Hogwarts.

Mud kept gathering in wet pools at the end of every corridor, even though Filch went around with his mop, grumbling. By that afternoon, if you went into any dormitory of a Hogwarts student, you would see wet robes bobbing up and down gently in the air, hung to dry by various spells. You'd also see wet shoes lined up by the side of the bed.

If you went into the kitchen, you'd see the house elves busily stirring chicken stew and chopping vegetables for dinner. If you went a little ways into the forest, you'd see Hagrid, with his pink umbrella slung over his shoulder, feeding the thestrals (Or maybe you wouldn't, it depends). And if you turned into the Hospital Wing of the school, you'd see two patients, both girls, seated on the same cot.

One girl had bushy hair and extremely long front teeth that she kept running her fingers over. The other, light-haired and large-eyed, sat on the cot, distractedly rubbing her foot, which was looking purplish-blue. She had just come in.

Madame Pomfrey greeted the light-haired girl hurriedly and rushed into the apothecary. Then she came out, carrying a sealed paper bag labeled "Shrivelfig Paste", unsealed it, added a few blocks of ice to it with a quick murmured spell and handed it to her. "That ought to get rid of the swelling. Did you drop a crystal ball on it in Divination, Miss Lovegood?"

"My shoe shrank and squished a part of my foot," the girl said.

Pomfrey gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Shoes generally don't shrink. It only seems that way when you're growing so fast. Hold this for about half an hour." Pomfrey turned to the other girl. "Now, Miss Granger, are you _sure_ about this?"

The girl, whose first name was Hermione, nodded emphatically. "Absolutely. I've been in the hospital wing so many times, I might as well get something _lasting_ out of it. I don't think I'll ever regret getting nice teeth."

"Oh are you using a _spell_ to shrink her teeth?" asked the light-haired girl (whose name was Luna). "Which is it? Maybe it's the same one _someone_ used to shrink my shoe." She smiled, eyes bright with curiosity.

"A secret treatment," Pomfrey said briskly. "I certainly cannot divulge how it is to be done. Now, I'll need to get some paperwork done first if I'm going to be devoting my evening to a student's teeth." She added to Hermione, "You'll have to wait for me" and bustled back into the apothecary room.

"Do you really think someone hexed your shoe on purpose to hurt you?" Hermione asked.

"Take a look." Luna pulled the black Mary-Jane shoe out of her bag. It _did_ rather look like it would fit a 6 year-old.

"But who was it?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Luna said. "But I think it might have been Daphne Greengrass, a fourth year. What happened to _you_?"

"Also a hex. Except it was supposed to be my friend Harry that got hexed. The spell bounced. And I was all set to make an excellent Girding Solution." She gave a frustrated sigh. "I don't suppose Snape took any points away from the person who did it either."

"Oh, were you in Snape's class when it happened? So was I." Luna smiled. "Snape must be having quite a day."

"Did Snape act hateful when you asked to leave?"

"No, he could see that my foot really hurt," Luna explained. She presses the sealed bag to her foot and winced.

Hermione stared. "Snape doesn't care about things like that. He's _vindictive_."

Luna frowned and shook her head slowly. "No, no. It's true, he doesn't care about people feeling embarrassed or awkward or frightened. I think he enjoys _those_ things. But he cares about real _pain_." For a moment, her eyes rested on her lap, then lit up with a fresh thought. "I should tell him about what I saw."

"What did you see?"

Luna glanced towards the apothecary room furtively. "Now, this is secret. Nobody saw it but me and the wrackspurts."

"The _what_?" Hermione's eyes widened over her huge, elongated teeth.

"Anyway, they don't talk. So I'll need you to keep the secret."

"I'll keep the secret," Hermione said impatiently. "Now what did you see?"

"I was in the middle of making my Confusing Concoction and I accidentally burned my stirring stick to a crisp. So I headed to the student-store cupboard at the back of the room to get another one. And Daphne, a fourth year, was there, sorting the ingredients. I'm a third year by the way, so she isn't in my class. She was there to help out."

Hermione shrugged. "So? Snape always has some Slytherin girl fixing up and labeling his bottles and jars at the beginning of the year. Is Daphne a Slytherin?"

"Yes. But as I approached the cupboard, I saw her slipping a bag of something into her pocket. Then she waved her wand over it and murmured something. And then she looked up and saw me and said, ' _What_ are you doing here? Go back to your seat now.' I pointed at the stirring sticks without saying a word. Then she thrust one in my hands and I went back to my seat. Within a half hour, my shoe started shrinking and nearly squished my foot into a flat slab."

"If she did it, she's a rat," Hermione said. "You didn't even _do_ anything! But you don't know what it was that she took?"

"It looked like a bag of black seeds." Luna looked conflicted. "I ought to tell Snape all about it. He _trusts_ Daphne."

"Wait a minute...Shouldn't you try to figure out why she took them? It _is_ possible she had a reason." Hermione looked uncomfortable. "Sometimes, people steal ingredients for something truly important."

"But if it was a real emergency, she could have _asked_ ," Luna said innocently, still pressing the cold pack full of Shrivelfig paste to her foot.

"It isn't always easy to ask Snape for things."

Luna spoke slowly as if puzzling it out for herself. "Even if what she did isn't as bad as stealing from Snape's _private_ _desk_ , it's still stealing because we're only supposed to use the cupboard ingredients during class. In fact, I would tell Snape about it _right now_ , if it wasn't for her name."

"What do you mean, her name? She'd still be a girl who stole from Snape's cupboard whatever her name is, wouldn't she?"

"Yes," Luna reflected. "But it would be a completely different situation if she had another name."

"I don't see how," Hermione said stubbornly. "There's a muggle saying, something about a rose smelling as sweet with any other name. My dad likes to quote it."

"Oh, that sounds nice," Luna said. "Yes, a rose might smell as sweet. But with Daphne, it's different. Even if Daphne was a haughty show-off and a bully to the first years, and even if she hexed me, her name is still not just any name."

" _Is_ she a bully to the first years?"

"I've never _seen_ her act like a bully," Luna said. "I've hardly seen her at all except from far away. Oh dear, that's the dinner bell." She got lost in thought for a moment. "Of course, I might have also been hexed by the Trying Trio."

"The _what_?"

"It's difficult to explain," said Luna and smiled vaguely. She stood, limping a little.

Hermione felt the curiosity within her egging her on. "All right," she said. "Can you meet me after dinner by the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's office? I want to hear you tell me about the Trying Trioand Daphne and, maybe, I can help you make sense of it and decide what to do. I'm, _well_ , I'm known for being sort of bright."

Luna beamed. "That's very kind of you. But we can hardly stand in the corridor the whole time."

"Oh there's a spare classroom," Hermione said. "When Moody came at the beginning of the year, I think he brought so much stuff with him that he was forced to carry all the defensive theory books out of his office and into the neighboring room. I keep wanting to go there and read but it's been a busier year than I thought." She sighed. "So I'll see you at 8."

"But won't _you_ be having dinner too?" Luna asked.

"I need my teeth done and now's the only time," Hermione said stubbornly. "It's all right. I'll see if I can find Hagrid or Flitwick in the staffroom if I have a minute before our meeting. They both carry snacks with them. Except Hagrid's usually need a little... _adjusting_." She tapped her wand with her index finger. "But nothing too difficult. I'll see you soon."

* * *

When Luna came down the grand staircase, it was already 20 minutes past 6.

She hurried down the first floor corridor when she suddenly heard a voice. A clear voice coming from a spare classroom, saying, "Stop, right there, Luna Lovegood. _What_ has happened to you?"

Luna stopped. The wooden door was already open a crack, so she slipped in, still limping. "I got slightly hurt in Potions but I'm all right now," she said lightly.

The voice that had been calling her was coming from a portrait on the wall, one of a teenage girl, dressed in dark Hogwarts robes and a green scarf. It was the only portrait in the dusty, cluttered classroom. The girl in the painting looked slightly angry but also relieved at the sight of Luna. She said, "When you didn't come to get your glassy thing, I wondered what went wrong. You _said_ you'd come get it before dinner."

Next to the large oil-portrait, an easel had been set up, with parchment and some paints. The parchment displayed a few, beginning strokes that gave an unmistakable impression of a face, similar to the face of the girl in the portrait. Paints and paintbrushes were all set up in front of the easel and the name "Luna" was etched on the side of the box of paints.

"The glassy thing has a name, Andromeda," Luna said patiently. "I've told you what it was called at least 3 times. It's a Skill-Stealer." She glanced carefully at the corridor. "This is not a good time for me to stop by. Somebody might hear our voices and I'll never find another spot as great as this for painting alone."

"I only called you because I saw your reflection on the side of the door as you were passing. And you've never failed to stop by to get your glassy thing back before," said the portrait of Andromeda. "Not that I don't _enjoy_ using it. It's much more entertaining watching things in it than hanging by the Slytherin entrance and seeing the students throw insults and jibes at each other every second. They're _not_ very nice to each other over there."

Luna picked up a cone-shaped glass object that was lying among the paintbrushes. "I had so much on my mind, I completely forgot."

"I hope _that's_ going to heal up," said the portrait, eyeing Luna's foot.

Luna didn't even give her foot a second glance. She already seemed to be distracted by a new thought. "Andromeda," she said. "Are you my friend?"

The girl in the portrait hesitated. "As much as a picture and a human _can_ be friends, I supposed I am yours," she finally said. "After all, nobody else was worried about you, were they?"

"I suppose not," Luna said. "Well, I'd better hurry along to dinner, it's half over by now. Can I come in and copy you for a bit tomorrow morning?" She motioned to the paintbrushes.

"Tomorrow is as good as any day for me," the portrait of Andromeda said, smiling. "Besides, we've got an agreement, don't we?"

"Yes. I show you interesting things in my Skill-Stealer, and you let me copy you." Luna slipped the glass cone into the right pocket of her robe. "I hope you get enough sleep."

"I don't _have_ to sleep, so it doesn't much matter," shrugged Andromeda. "As for that foot, I recommend Shrivelfig Paste."

"Already done." And Luna headed out, her stomach rumbling.


	2. Chapter 2

To Luna's slight disappointment, nobody at the Ravenclaw table came up to her to ask why she was limping or why she had left Potions early.

Luna reached for the ladle and gave herself several juicy, abundant helpings of chicken stew.

 _Yes, that was disappointing indeed._

She dug in.

She was not a pessimist by nature. If nobody worried about her, she'd take care of herself. As she ate, every so often, she reached into her pocket to feel the Skill-Stealer. Her mind travelled back to the day dad had given it to her.

 _They had been sitting on the riverbank in the summer, dipping their bare feet in the water. Luna was chattering away about her usual routine at school._

" _First part of the day is filled with classes. My favorite class used to be Transfiguration but I'm starting several new ones this year, so I don't know which I'll like best. Then, dinner. After dinner, I generally do homework alone in the library, then walk over the grounds and compose songs and speeches in my head."_

" _What do you mean 'speeches'?" Xenophilius was looking at Luna very fondly._

" _Oh things I would say, if people listened. But nobody really does listen."_

" _Is that so?"_

" _Sometimes, I go to my dormitory to sketch a picture with colored pencils. Or I sit in the common room but it gets crowded there and people are always asking me if I can change my seat. They say apologetically, 'Seeing as how you're alone and we're with someone, would you please move?'"_

 _Xenophilius frowned. "Why alone? Didn't you make any friends last year?"_

 _Luna didn't know how to explain. The very phrase "making friends" had begun to sound incongruous to her. If only you could make friends like you could make a Disappearing Draught in Potions class, just by following directions...she'd do very well at that, she was sure. She was decent at Potions, perhaps, because Professor Snape didn't scare her, like he did so many other students._

" _It just didn't happen. Friends."_

 _He frowned. "But I don't understand. You're not shy. You're friendly and talkative. You're intelligent too. You shouldn't have trouble finding things to discuss with other girls."_

" _I'm more thinkative, than talkative really," Luna said. "Oh, is 'thinkative" a word?"_

" _It should be," her father agreed. For a moment, he looked distracted. "I ought to write a column, 'Words That Should Be Used If they Aren't.'" He came back to the subject at hand. "But that shouldn't be a problem. Ravenclaws are supposed to be thinkers.'"_

" _I think they like knowing more than thinking. They like to tell me whenever I'm wrong. Like with the wrackspurts."_

" _Wrackspurts do exist and don't you let yourself be swayed."_

 _This was a sensitive point with him, so Luna just nodded._

 _He reached into a box that he had brought with him and took out a glass cone-shaped object. "Now, I'd hoped you could show this to some friends of yours but, at any rate, you will be able to enjoy it yourself. This is called a Skill Stealer."_

 _Luna's eyes grew big. Dad enjoyed finding quaint little decorations and jewelry for her but this was the first magical object (other than her wand) that she had ever gotten. "Does it...steal things?"_

" _We were warned that it would at the secondhand shop where we bought it. Your mum and I got it for a bit of fun, convinced that it would take away our ability to dance the waltz or something. But it didn't. So we tried testing it in different situations and realized that what it did was steal demonstrations of skill. Like a particularly good bit of household magic or a person singing or playing an excellent game of Quidditch. It captures the things it witnesses. And later, you can ask to see them again and you get a shadowy moving image that you can watch inside this round part on top." A look of fleeting sorrow passed over his face. "I should have used it to steal a moment of your mum working at something. While I could. But I never thought I'd lose her so soon."_

 _Luna swallowed, then firmly turned her mind away from her mum. "So what if I wanted to steal you fishing on the riverbank. Could I?"_

" _I'm not that good of a fisherman. The skill-stealer might just turn up its nose at that. Or its...whatever it has. But just wait, Luna. Soon enough, you'll witness something interesting enough to make it worth stealing."_

Luna came back to the present moment with a start.

Dinner was over. Her foot was still throbbing and she suddenly remembered how much homework she had. With a sigh, she headed to the library, where she spent some time doing work for Potions and Divination. Finally, around 7:50, she headed up to the second floor, just as Hermione had asked her to.

Hermione was standing by the DADA office. Her teeth had been filed back down to a relatively normal size. Luna supposed they'd been improved as well but she had no way of knowing for sure.

Hermione looked irritated. She was holding a flyer that advertised the Triwizard Tournament as the "highlight of every student's school experience".

" _This_ ," she said. "I'm _so_ tired of this. Everyone's so excited. I can understand why, I suppose. But I just wanted a normal school year. _Now_ , of course, my two best friends are fighting and a much older boy from Bulgaria keeps trying to get my attention. And I'm only fourteen!"

A sudden metallic bang came from the DADA office.

Hermione hurried Luna along the corridor. "It's become a strange room since Moody came," she muttered. "Lupin's curiosities and Lockheart's photos on the walls never creeped me out like this."

When they were seated in the spare classroom, Hermione pulled out a package full of small rock cakes. "Well," she said. "Tell me about the Trying Trio. And then we can talk about Daphne Greengrass."

Luna reached for a rock cake thoughtfully. She appreciated Hermione's brisk manner but she could not be rushed.

"It all began with Andromeda the portrait," she began. " Within the first few weeks of school, I decided that I wanted to copy a portrait and hers was the best. So I went and asked her for her permission."

"Wait," said Hermione. "Can you just copy a Hogwarts portrait just like that? Is that allowed?"

Luna shrugged. "I decided that as long as _the portrait_ allowed me to do it, it would be all right. Now, Andromeda's regular place was in the corridor leading to the Slytherin entrance because that's the house the _original_ Andromeda was in. So I moved the portrait to an empty classroom where I could work in peace."

"That can't _possibly_ be permitted, moving portraits around."

Luna crossed her arms. "Can we move on or are we going to be stuck on this point all night?"

Hermione looked taken aback. "Go on, of course."

"October 20th was the day it all started. My painting session with Andromeda ended at half past 7 that day. I had Defense Against the Dark Arts at 8 AM. That left me 30 minutes to climb up to the 7th floor, grab my books, jog down to the Great Hall for a quick coffee and head back up to Defense on the 3rd floor. I also had to stop by the Charms classroom on the way, so I got into Moody's class at exactly 8.

Then, I had a break from 9:15 to 10 (when I have Herbology), so I was wandering along, daydreaming, until Deena Tillson from Intro to Ancient Runes stopped me in the halls. She's a Hufflepuff, but they mix all the houses up in Intro to Runes because it's an elective."

"I _know_ they do," said Hermione. "You needn't mention things I already know."

Luna simply waited for a moment.

"You know," said Hermione. "Maybe I ought to not say anything until you're done."

So Luna proceeded.

" "Why weren't you at breakfast this morning, Lovegood?" said Deena.

"I had a few things to do," I said.

"What exactly is your schedule on Mondays?"

Her manner was so confident that before I knew it, I was listing my classes.

"Well," Leanne said. "It's a shame I didn't get to grab you at breakfast, but it's too late now. Next week, you'll know."

"Know what?"

"I'll need you every Monday morning at exactly eight."

"For what?"

"Listen, you dolt." Deena spoke slowly. "Our Runes class is in the afternoon and we don't intersect at all before that, since you've got that many classes. So I'll need to see your weekend homework. Every Monday during breakfast. Because Professor Babbling usually gives the biggest translation assignments over the weekend."

"Well, I suppose…" I said.

Deena gave me a forced smile. "Today, you'll just have to skip Choir at 10. That's when I have _my_ break. Right now, I've stepped out of class for the loo but I'll see you in the library at 10." She turned as if to go.

"What?" I giggled at absurdity of the request. "I'm not skipping Choir."

Deena's eyes narrowed. She held her wand tightly at her side. "You'll have to. I can't afford to miss any assignments."  
"Well then...you'll need to find someone with more free time to do your work for you."  
In the next instant, I felt, rather than saw, an ice-cold stream of water squirt me in the eye.  
"I repeat, Lovegood. You will meet me in the library today at 10 or deal with some nasty consequences." "

Hermione's eyes were big. "What did you _do_?"

"I went on to Choir just like I had planned," said Luna. "If you knew what effort it took me to get Flitwick to sign me up for Choir in the first place...you'd know it was _that_ important to me. But Deena told her friends at lunch. She always sits at the edge of the Hufflepuff table so she can talk to Vicky in Gryffindor. And Lisa from Ravenclaw always comes over and sits besides Vicky. Anyway, that's when things started happening. That night, I came into my room and all my things had been flipped."

"What do you mean 'flipped'?"

"How do I explain?" Luna frowned. "When you look into a mirror, things that were on the right, are now on the left, and the left are on the right, yes?"

"Kind of," said Hermione. "But my mind _knows_ that it's what I'll see in advance, so the image in the mirror doesn't _feel_ flipped unless I stop to think about it."

"Well, every one of my belongings had been _flipped_ but individually, so that each item was still in its place. My bedside clock was going backwards. My shoes pointed _in_ instead of _out_. My Snorkack poster on the wall looked all strange and skewed. The letters on my textbooks were mirrored. By the next morning, all my things had returned to normal. It was really kind of _clever_ , I thought at the time. Except they started pranking me with different things each time and I never knew what to expect. I've had my belongings multiplied, divided in _two_ , made half-transparent but not _quite,_ everything you can think of. And whenever Deena passed me in the Great Hall, smirking, I knew it was them. I've begun thinking of them as The Trying Trio."

"How do you know all three of them did it _?_ Maybe it was Deena alone?"  
Luna shook her head. "Oh, no, _she_ couldn't even answer the riddle to get into our common room. But Lisa Turpin is in Ravenclaw, so she's already in. _She_ might have done it. She might have snuck Deena in and let her do the rest. And there's also Vicky Frobisher."

"I _know_ , Vicky," Hermione said, startled. "We're in the same Charms class. You're right, Vicky could have cast those spells, as she's fairly competent witch."

" I guess I should take it all like a good sport, but I don't like that they are touching my things," Luna said simply. And when Hermione looked sympathetic, she added, "I have some belongings I don't want anybody to know about. And some that are special."

Hermione was thinking hard. "What about your dorm mates? You couldn't ask them to help protect your things? They're in that room all the time anyway."

" _Those_ girls?" said Luna. "They just laugh every time something happens. So I laugh along and blame it all on the nargles."

Hermione flinched. "I really don't know what I would do in your place. Probably ask my friends to hold onto anything especially important."

"Yes," Luna said. "But you see, I haven't got those _kinds_ of friends. I just have Andromeda the portrait and my pet Dibs." She thought for a moment. " _And_ dad back home."

Hermione glanced at her wristwatch. "Well. I understand about the Trying Trio now but we haven't even started talking about Daphne. Come to think of it, it might have not been Daphne who hexed your shoe after all. It might have been the Trio. So you shouldn't tell on Daphne unless you're sure. Anyway, we have a little time left. Go on."

Suddenly, Hermione's attention was attracted by some noise outside. "Something's going on," she said. "Wait here."

She stepped out and Luna could hear her speaking to Filch in sticky sweet tones.

When she came back, she looked annoyed but resigned. "I have to go back to the dormitory. Haven't a choice. He's suspicious just because I'm here. Comes of being friends with the Weasleys. But we'll talk again. Let me think on what you've told me so far tonight."


End file.
